Artificial marble is an artificial synthetic material, which has the texture of natural stone and is prepared by adding additives, such as natural stone powder, minerals, resin chips and the like, to resin such as acrylic resin, unsaturated polyester resin, epoxy resin and the like, or a matrix such as cement, and if necessary, adding additives such as a pigment thereto.
Artificial marbles are classified as solid products including no chips and granite products including chips. In addition, depending on the materials used to make the artificial marble, artificial marbles are also classified as acrylic-based artificial marbles, polyester-based artificial marbles, epoxy-based artificial marbles, melamine-based artificial marbles, engineered stone-based artificial marbles, etc. Such artificial marbles can have a beautiful appearance and excellent processability and are lighter and stronger than natural marble. Due to these advantages, the artificial marbles are widely used as various interior and exterior materials, including materials for dressing tables, washstands, kitchen counters, walls, floors, other furniture, and the like.
Various methods for preparing an artificial marble having an amorphous pattern are known, which comprise mixing synthetic resin materials having different colors with each other and injecting the liquid resin mixture into a molding cell. However, artificial marble prepared according to conventional methods does not have the lump-shaped amorphous pattern of natural marble.
Korean Patent Publication No. 0688025 discloses a method for preparing an artificial marble chip comprising an unsaturated polyester resin, a styrene-based monomer and an inorganic filler. This preparation method can prevent sedimentation by controlling viscosity, but the prepared artificial marble chips do not have a lump-shaped amorphous pattern.
Korean Patent Publication No. 0833273 discloses an artificial marble comprising an unsaturated polyester resin, a silica powder, silica sand and a pigment. The publication states that the artificial marble has a metallic texture due to ferrosilicon or silicon metal contained in the silica sand. However, this artificial marble also does not have a lump-shaped amorphous pattern.